World Book Day

Carmel College celebrated World Book Day 2017 by asking staff from each Department to dress up as characters from their favourite books. Staff threw themselves into the challenge with incredible imagination and creativity. Throughout the day students were able to show their appreciation to staff by donating to giveabook.org.uk which provides books to underprivileged children. Presentations reflecting upon Departments’ choice of books were delivered to students at the start of each lesson that day. The presentations closed with a prayer giving thanks for authors, storytelling and reading. The College was full of joy, laughter and happiness as all shared in their love of reading whether it was books from early childhood to book club recommendations! Carmel had its very own Gringotts bank, owlery, howlers and applications for Hogwarts as staff transformed whole rooms into scenes from Harry Potter. This was accompanied by giants footprints in the corridors from the visiting BFG!

A book quiz, based upon the books chosen by each Department, was held during lunchtime with each year group being represented by a team of 12 students. The students were so excited, enthusiastic and created an incredible atmosphere as they talked about books and much loved characters. Year 10 came first with an excellent score of 41/43. The winners all received £5.00 book vouchers.

As a memento of the day each student and member of staff received a World Book Day book mark, designed by Aileen Stebbings from the LRC and Carmel staff. Aileen organised this incredibly uplifting and simply fantastic experience for our community which brought us all together to emphasise how important reading and literacy is for us all.

Throughout the day students engaged with staff, asking which book character they were dressed as. Students commented that ‘it was great to see the staff having fun’, ‘the costumes are amazing, they have gone to so much effort and we love it’ and, ‘it brought you back to when you were younger and the books you loved, you had a chance to remember what was important to you then!’

As it is becoming more popular for children to dress up as book characters on World Book Day, there are great demands put upon parents to purchase book character costumes for their children. The decision to ask staff to dress up and not students took the pressure off our parents and yet still allowed the spotlight to shine on books and the joy of reading!